A student of mine asked me "how long will it take untill Im good?"I replied you're great now !His face sank a little before eventually he managed a smile, "Thanks coach" he replied.What he didn't realise was that I meant it, completely, no messing about.It all depends on how you percieve "good" to be.I know guys that have been training for 40 years plus, yet still their skills are poor.I know guys that only train a small part of the system, due in part to just simply not knowing. The rest of their training is usually somthing else, such as BJJ or Thai boxing. These guys are efficient fighters, but can you really say that they that their knowledge of Wing Chun is any good.On the flip side of the coin, their are guys that train correctly for only a short period of time and their skills are very sharp.Why then, why do we have this huge difference in skills.Generally people dont question, people dont look outside of what they know. If a guy has trained for 20 years, they quite often wont admit defeat and put their hands up and honestly say "OK I got it wrong". This is the problem with Wing Chun, the problem is rife, right accross the board. People say" but its only westerners that get it wrong, If I go to Hong Kong surely I will be taught correctly". It would be nice If this was the case, but sadly its just as bad at the source as it is here in the West.So how do we know then, what is right and what is wrong....The answer is quite simple...Does it work outside of your chosen school/lineage or not. Great Wing Chun works wherever, whenever against whoever, that was the whole point in the first place.So the next time a novice enters your school and sets about making your "sifu" look utterly rubbish, you may want to think about it.....and quite possibly leave, to find out where they were taught the skills that enabled them to do so without breaking a sweat.Think about it and wise up, because if you dont know what the answer is, then more often than not, your part of the problem.